XQuery for Humanists (Coding for Humanists)

XQuery is the best language for querying, manipulating, and transforming XML and JSON documents. Because XML is in many ways the lingua franca of the digital humanities, learning XQuery empowers humanists to discover and analyze their data in new ways. Until now, though, XQuery has been difficult to learn because there was no textbook designed for non- or beginner programmers. XQuery for Humanists fills this void with an approachable guidebook aimed directly at digital humanists. Clifford B. Anderson and Joseph C. Wicentowski introduce XQuery in terms accessible to humanities scholars and do not presuppose any prior background in programming. It provides an informed, opinionated overview and recommends the best implementations, libraries, and paradigms to empower those who need it most. Emphasizing practical applicability, the authors go beyond the XQuery language to include the basics of underlying standards like XPath, related standards like XQuery Full Text and XQuery Update, and explain the difference between XQuery and languages like Python and R. This book will afford readers the skills they need to build and analyze large-scale documentary corpora in XML. XQuery for Humanists is immeasurably valuable to instructors of digital humanities and library science courses alike and likewise is a ready reference for faculty, graduate students, and librarians who seek to master XQuery for their projects. Cover 1 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Introduction 15 Chapter 1: Why XQuery for Humanists? 21 1.1 Built for the Kind of Data Most Digital Humanists Use 21 1.2 Easy for Beginning Programmers to Learn 24 1.3 XML and Digital Humanities Data 27 1.3.1 XML Compared to Other Formats 29 1.3.1.1 JSON 29 1.3.1.2 RDF 31 1.4 XQuery Compared to XSLT 33 1.5 A Great Digital Humanities Community 35 1.6 Questions 37 Chapter 2: Setting Up Your XQuery Environment 38 2.1 Installing Java 41 2.2 Setting Up BaseX 41 2.3 Setting Up eXist 42 2.4 Setting Up oXygen 44 2.5 Setting Up Saxon 46 2.6 Accessing Online Companion Materials 47 2.7 Preserving and Sharing Code with GitHub 47 2.8 Questions and Exercises 51 Chapter 3: Reviewing XML and Related Standards 53 3.1 History and Goals of XML 53 3.2 XML Basics 55 3.2.1 Writing Well-Formed XML 55 3.2.2 Writing Valid XML 59 3.3 XML as a Data Standard 61 3.4 XML Gotchas 64 3.4.1 Embracing Namespaces 66 3.4.2 Escaping Strings 69 3.4.3 Whitespace 70 3.5 Questions and Exercises 72 Chapter 4: Finding Your Way Around with XPath 75 4.1 XPath Axes 77 4.2 Node Tests by Kind 78 4.3 XPath’s Abbreviated Syntax 81 4.4 XPath Functions 83 4.5 XPath Tips and Tricks 92 4.5.1 Wildcards 92 4.5.2 Value Comparisons 93 4.5.3 Selecting Multiple Element Names with the Union Operator 95 4.5.4 Selecting the “Nth” Item or a Range of Items 95 4.6 Questions and Exercises 96 Chapter 5: XQuery Basics 99 5.1 The Parts of an XQuery 100 5.2 Enclosed Expressions and Curly Braces 104 5.3 FLWOR Expressions 105 5.3.1 Binding Variables 106 5.3.2 Iterating over Variables 108 5.3.3 Filtering Results 110 5.3.3.1 A Short Note on Comparisons 112 5.3.4 Ordering Results 114 5.3.5 Counting Results 116 5.3.6 Grouping Results 118 5.4 Conditional Expressions 121 5.4.1 Effective Boolean Values 122 5.4.2 The Else Clause Is Required: A Few Tips About Using Conditional Expressions 123 5.4.3 Chaining Conditional Expressions 124 5.5 Questions and Exercises 125 Chapter 6: Next Steps with XQuery 127 6.1 The Built-In Function Library 127 6.2 Writing Your Own Functions 134 6.3 Using Library Modules 139 6.3.1 Importing Library Modules 139 6.3.2 Creating Your Own Library Modules 141 6.3.3 Public and Private Functions 144 6.3.4 Wrapping Up 147 6.4 Questions and Exercises 147 Chapter 7: Advanced XQuery 151 7.1 String Constructors 151 7.2 Maps and Arrays 156 7.2.1 Revisiting Sequences 156 7.2.2 Maps 159 7.2.3 Arrays 165 7.2.4 Combining Maps and Arrays 167 7.2.5 Modifying Maps and Arrays 169 7.3 Windowing 172 7.3.1 Understanding Tuple Streams 172 7.3.2 Tumbling Windows 174 7.3.3 Sliding Windows 176 7.4 Questions and Exercises 180 Chapter 8: Thinking Functionally 183 8.1 Immutability 184 8.2 Maps 187 8.3 Folds 192 8.4 Recursion 196 8.4.1 Transforming Data with Recursive Typeswitch 199 8.5 Higher-Order Functions 211 8.6 Questions and Exercises 218 Chapter 9: Modifying Your Data with XQuery Update 220 9.1 Copying Data 221 9.2 Transform Expressions 224 9.2.1 Insert 224 9.2.2 Delete 226 9.2.3 Replace 227 9.2.4 Rename 229 9.2.5 Transform With 231 9.3 Updating Expressions 235 9.3.1 Changing the World 235 9.3.2 Updating Functions 239 9.4 Questions and Exercises 242 Chapter 10: Searching with XQuery Full Text 244 10.1 Finding Patterns with XPath 244 10.1.1 Searching Substrings 245 10.1.2 Regular Expressions 246 10.2 The Full Text Contains Text Operator 250 10.2.1 Scoring 253 10.2.2 Any-All Options 254 10.2.3 Cardinality 256 10.2.4 Positional Filters 257 10.2.5 Weighting 262 10.2.6 Match Options 264 10.3 Questions and Exercises 269 Chapter 11: Handling Errors Gracefully 271 11.1 Documenting Your XQuery with XQDoc 272 11.2 Catching Mistakes Before You Run Anything 277 11.3 Catching Errors at Runtime 280 11.4 Unit Testing with XQuery 285 11.5 Questions and Exercises 286 Chapter 12: Using XQuery with Other Digital Humanities Tools 289 12.1 XQuery and JSON 291 12.2 XQuery and CSV 300 12.3 XQuery and XSLT 310 12.4 Questions and Exercises 314 Chapter 13: Conclusion 316 13.1 XQuery Paralipomena 316 13.1.1 Web Applications 317 13.1.2 Databases 319 13.2 The XQuery Community 320 13.2.1 Books 320 13.2.2 Digital Forums 321 13.2.3 Conferences and Training 323 13.3 Questions and Exercises 324 Acknowledgments 325 Notes 327 About the Authors 339 Index 341 ""XQuery for Humanists" provides an informed, opinionated overview and recommends the best implementations, libraries, and paradigms to empower those who need it most. Emphasizing practical applicability, the authors go beyond the XQuery language to include the basics of underlying standards like XPath, related standards like XQuery Full Text and XQuery Update, and explain the difference between XQuery and languages like Python and R. This book will afford readers the skills they need to build and analyze large-scale documentary corpora in XML. A ready-reference for faculty, graduate students, and librarians who seek to master XQuery for their projects"-- Provided by publisher